Past Faires

From Years of Olde:

How much Faire has changed . . . An e-mail from the 1st Faire Chair:

4-20-04
My husband, Jack (an early music prof here at the University of Louisville), and Kate Bracher (now retired Whitman astronomer) undertook the music and dance element of the day. Harper Joy scheduled Shakespeare scenes in the amphitheater on Saturday. We held period appropriate games and mock hand-to-hand battles. Dr. King (history) provided a late 15th century church service in the amphitheater the following morning.

Our merchants were underwritten, every last one of them. The goods for the flower seller, the ribbon and basket booth, etc. were purchased by me. The booth sellers were bribed to dress up and sell the goods by offering each the profits. There were trumpeters in Mem tower and a procession to the Faire grounds under the trees in front of the library.

The food service director, Paul Harvey, cooked up frumenty, offered fresh strawberries, cheese, and some other items that now escape my memory serving them from long tables outside of the Prentiss dining hall.

Early evening offered a concert in the conservatory lobby where the pillars and balconies were merrily festooned with flowers and ivy. That was capped with a bonfire on the field using the wood from the old shed that we had hauled in for booths.

Thanks for carrying on the tradition.

Ruth